Billing device.



G. G. SHEPHERD.

BILLING DEVICE. APPLICATION FILED 1142.11, 1909.

9 -0901 Patented Jan. 31, 1-911.

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G. O. "SHEPHERD.

j BILLING DEVICE. APPLIOATlOIf FILED MAR. 11, 1909.

Patented Jan. 31, 1911.

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GILBERT C. SHEPHERD, OF KEV] YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO OFFICE SPECIALTIES DELUXE INCORPORATED, OF WORCESTER, MASSACHUSETTS, A CORPORATION OF MASSACHUSETTS.

BILLING DEVICE.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Jan. 31, 1911.

Application filed March 11, 1909. Serial No. 482,695.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GILBERT C. SHEPHERD, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Brooklyn, in the city of New York, county of Kings, and State of New Yorz, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Billing Devices, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to abilling device.

A system of preparing bills or statements has lately come into use and the object of my invention is to produce a device which will facilitate in the preparing and handling of such statements, whereby time and annoyance will be saved and an economical method employed. At the present time many business concerns prepare their bills or statements in duplicate and then separate the several copies, sending one to the debtor and reserving the other for record purposes.

My invention relates to the formation of the sheets themselves and their index and is particularly useful where statements are temporarily filed in a holder and items added to them, say during the month if bills are rendered monthly; and at the end of the month the copies are disposed of as referred to.

An object of the present invention is to provide a sheet which may be readily adapted for use in any of several positions in relation-to an entiregroup, by providing a set of weakened lines, such as perforations, by which portions of one edge of the sheet may be torn off to provide a tab, the position of which will be determined by the tearing. In this way one stock sheet is readily applicable for any one of the several accounts.

In the drawings forming a part of this application, Figure 1 is a perspective view of my improvements, Fig. 2 is a perspective view of a portion of one of the sheets, showing numeral indications placed on the tabs, Fig. 3 is a plan view of a tab sheet, Fig. 4 is a perspective view of one of the bill sheets, and Fig. 5 is a plan view of one of the bill sheets as made and before it is folded or torn for use.

The improvements relate more particularly to the various sheets which are used and any convenient device may be used to retain the sheets in a group where they may be removed readily. I prefer to use a receptacle consisting of rectangular ends 1, between which are held divergent sides 2, between which the sheet-s are placed on their edges, where they may be readily sorted.

The improvements herein are particularly applicable for use in the system of billing wherein sheets are made out for various accounts in duplicate and retained in a temporary file, such as the receptacle here shown, which sheets are removed from time to time and items added as sales are made, until the end of the month, where bills are rendered monthly, when the several sections of the manifold sheets are separated and applied to their various uses.

By reference to Figs. 4 and 5 it will be seen that I have provided a stock sheet 3, preferably oblong in shape, which has various lines 4 on the front for the columns of items and for ledger or other columns, and others 4* on the back as well as top lines for the name and address of the debtor. The sheet is provided with a perforated lino 5, running up and down the full length of the sheet, whereby the sheet may be folded upon itself for forming a front and a back section 6 and 7 The section 6, is preferably of less dimensions than the section 7, whereby when the sheet is folded on the perforated line 5 as shown in Fig. 4c, the back sheet will extend beyond the front sheet sufficiently to provide a margin for columns of figures or for a binding margin in case the sheets are to be afterward placed in a binder.

The sheet is first formed with a full top line as shown in Fig. 5 and below the top edge there is a line of perforations 8, run

ning from say the right edge of the sheet and terminating in a turnout 9, short of the other edge, which turnout runs to the upper edge of the sheet. There are various intermediate perforations 10, running from the line 8 to the top edge of the sheet, dividing the top edge of the fold 7 off into spaces 11.

The bill sheets may be sold flat as shown in Fig. 5 and each sheet may be adapted for use in any position in the stack or group as will appear. The sheet is first folded upon itself on the perforated line 5. For each group of bill sheets I preferably employ a leader sheet 12, which is higher than the highest portion of the bill sheets, and is placed back of a pack or group of the bill sheets. These leader sheets have indicating means, such as numerals 13 along the top, above the top of the bill sheets, with which indicating means the various spaces 11 of the bill sheets aline. The leader sheet has in front of it as many bill sheets as there are indicating numerals on the leader sheet, when the stack is complete. For the purpose of separating and indicating these various stacks, where many are employed, I have provided a. tab sheet 14 behind the leader sheet, which has a tab 15, which eX- tends beyond the top of the leader sheet and has indicating means thereon such as a numeral to indicate the particular group of sheets.

The use of my improvements will be about as follows: There may be one or many groups of bill sheets as shown, each group having a leader sheet and a tab sheet. The various debtors are represented by the indications on the leader sheet, whether they are numbers or letters. hen goods are sold to a customer represented say by the numeral 1, a sheet as in Fig. 5, is folded on the line 5, and the top edge is torn ofi along the perforated line 8 and the turnout 9, leaving a tab 16 on the top near one side; and when this folded sheet is placed in the receptacle as part of a group or stack, its tab 16 will aline with the numeral 1 on the leader sheet. If goods are sold to a customer represented by another numeral on the leader sheet, another bill sheet is likewise folded and its top edge is torn sufficiently to leave a tab which will come as far along on the leader sheet as necessary to be opposite the numeral indicating such customer. This is continued until there are sheets having tabs for each numeral on the leader sheet, when the stack is completed. From time to time during the month the bill sheets may be removed singly, by taking hold of the tab opposite any numeral of the leader sheet and lifting it out; when other items may be added to the bill, a carbon for duplicating being used to place the items on both folds of the sheet. At the end of the month the bill sheets may be removed and separated by tearing along the perforated line 5; when the fold 6 may be sent to the debtor and the fold 7 placed in a binder for record or otherwise preserved. The sheet sent out will be free of all top extensions. It will thus be seen that only one form of bill sheet will be necessary for any position in any of the stacks, they being readily torn to adapt them. This obviates the necessity of making up originally sheets of various kinds and sorting them when they are to be used.

In referring to the lines 5, 8, etc, as perforated lines I do not wish to be limited to perforations but to include any other way of weakening the sheets so that they may be readily folded or torn.

In Fig. 2 I have shown the indicating numerals representing the different accounts on the tabs of the bill sheets which would make the use of the leader sheet unnecessary. The sheets would be used in the same way. I prefer to use the leader sheets as they are more desirable. The tab 15 has a numeral letter or other indication which corresponds with the last bill sheet before it, as 18 in the stack shown.

Having described my invention what I claim is:

1. As an article of manufacture a bill sheet having a vertically extending perforated line, whereby the sheet may be folded upon itself, with the perforated folded edge forming one side of the sheet and having a longitudinal perforated line near the top of the sheet and a plurality of perforated lines running from the top edge to the said longitudinal line, whereby a portion of the top of the sheet may be torn off to provide a tab on the top edge.

As an article of manufacture a bill sheet having a vertically disposed perforated line, dividing the sheet in unequal sections which may be folded upon each other at the said line, a longitudinal perforated line, near the top of the sheet and running across the narrower section, perforated lines, eX- tending from the top edge of the larger section of the sheet to the horizontal perforated line forming intermediate spaces, whereby the top edge of the sheet may be torn to provide a tab, the position of which will be determined by the tearing.

3. In a device, of the class described, the combination of a bill sheet having a vertically extending perforated line, whereby the sheet may be folded upon itself, with the perforated line forming one edge of the folded sheet and having a longitudinal perforated line near the top of the sheet and a plurality of perforated lines running from the top edge of the sheet to the said longitudinal line, whereby a portion of the top of the sheet may be torn off to provide a tab and a leader sheet extending beyond the said bill sheet and having indicating means on the portion extending beyond the bill sheet, which indicating means will aline with the spaces intermediate the said last mentioned perforated lines of the bill sheet;

4:. As an article of manufacture a bill sheet indicating means, on the said spaces, for the having a vertically disposed perforated line purposes set forth. 10

whereby the sheet may be folded upon itself, Signed at the city, county and State of a perforated line near the upper edge of the New York, this 10th day of March, 1909.

5 sheet, perforated lines running from the top GILBERT G. SHEPHERD.

edge of the sheet to the said longitudinal In presence of perforated line forming intermediate spaces EDWARD D. O. SPERRY, between the saill edge lines, the sheet having SHELDON A. DU CRn'r. 

